ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 380
http://www.s-gabriel.org/380
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7 Jul 1997
From: Talan Gwynek

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

Here's the information that we've found on the name "Tzigan Volchenok."

"Tzigan" is an approximate phonetic transcription into Roman letters
of the Russian word for "gypsy"; "tsygan" is a slightly more usual
transliteration.  However, we found no evidence that this word was
ever used as a given name in any form.

We had somewhat better luck with "Volchenok".  The best source we
know on period Russian naming is the "Dictionary of Period Russian
Names" by Paul Wickenden of Thanet.  Although we didn't find in it
exactly the name "Volchenok", we did find a 1634 citation for the
similarly constructed byname "Volchenets", meaning "little wolf."  It
would be possible to use this byname with any late-period Russian
given name, and Paul's Dictionary would be an excellent place to
look for one.  Not only does it have thousands of period names with
dated spellings, it also has a wealth of more general information on
Russian naming practices.  It is available on-line; the URL is:

  http://www.sca.org/heraldry/paul/

We also found several given names related to "volk", the Russian word
for "wolf", including "Volk" itself and the diminutive "Volchko".  It
appears that the name "Volk" was in use by the 12th century and
continued in use at least into the 16th century.

Finally, we found a Russian surname "Tsyganov" that is taken directly
from the word for "gypsy" [1].  Unfortunately, we don't know whether
"Tsyganov" is a period surname and therefore cannot recommend that
you use it.  We can only say that if it is period, "Volk Tsyganov"
would seem to be a reasonable Russian name.  We would recommend
instead, however, that you do one of two things:

(1) Use "Volk" as a given name and combine it with a known period
byname.

(2) Use the byname "Volchenets" or the patronymic "Volkov" with a 
period Russian given name.

We hope that this has been helpful and that we can continue to assist 
you.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek

References

[1]  Unbegaun, B. O., "Russian Surnames", Oxford, 1972.